Read Con Law for Free Online Page A

and ask for help? Like you’re some kind of superhero or something?’
    ‘Or something.’
    ‘And do you?’
    ‘Do I what?’
    ‘Help them.’
    ‘A few.’
    ‘Why the snail mail? Haven’t they heard of email?’
    ‘I don’t publish my email address. I figure if they want my help, they should at least be willing to write a real letter. And you can tell a lot more about a person from a letter.’
    ‘Ican tell there are a lot of sad people out there. Single mothers not getting their child support—’
    ‘Send those over to the Attorney General’s Child Support Office.’
    ‘—inmates claiming innocence and wanting DNA tests—’
    ‘Send those to the Innocence Project.’
    ‘—people wanting to sue somebody—’
    ‘No civil cases.’ Book took a step toward his desk. ‘Tell me if you find something interesting.’
    ‘I did.’
    Nadine held up an envelope.
    ‘You should read this one.’
    Book took the envelope, walked over to his desk, and was about to drop down into his chair when he heard Myrna’s voice from outside.
    ‘Faculty meeting!’
    He pushed the envelope into the back pocket of his jeans, grabbed the plastic container with Myrna’s quesadillas, and walked out of his office and down the corridor.

Chapter 3

    TheUniversity of Texas School of Law opened its doors in 1883 with two professors teaching fifty-two students. White students. State law forbade admission of black students. In 1946, a black man named Heman Sweatt applied for admission to the UT law school; his admission was denied solely because of his race. The infamous 1896 Supreme Court ruling in
Plessy v. Ferguson
had deemed the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment satisfied if a state provided ‘separate but equal’ accommodations for the races. So, rather than admit Mr. Sweatt, UT opened a separate law school for blacks only. But while the UT law school then had sixteen professors, eight hundred fifty students, a 65,000-volume library, and alumni in positions of legal power throughout the state, the blacks-only law school had three professors, twenty-three students, a 16,500-volume library, and exactly one graduate who was a member of the Texas bar. Mr. Sweatt sued but lost in the state trial court, state appeals court, and state supreme court. So he took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In
Sweatt v. Painter
, the Court ruled in 1950 that the blacks-only law school did not offer a legal education equal to that offered whites and ordered Mr. Sweatt admitted to the UT law school. Sixty-two years later, the University of Texas School of Law had seventy-two full-time professors, 1,178 students, a million-volume library, and sixty-two black students.
    Bookopened the door and stepped inside the faculty conference room where most of the full-time faculty were already engaged in vigorous debate. He tried to walk unnoticed around the perimeter of the large room, but the discussion abruptly stopped, and all heads turned his way, as if a student had invaded their private sanctum.
    ‘Ah, our very own Indiana Jones is honoring us with his presence this morning. How wonderful. My, the press does love our dashing young professor, don’t they?’
    Addressing Book from the head of the long conference table was Professor Jonah Goldman (Harvard, 1973, Environmental Law), the faculty president. Book’s exploits in East Texas had made the national press.
    ‘And your book is still number one on the
New York Times
, I see. I would think you could afford a suit with all those royalties.’
    Professor Goldman had lived the last thirty-five years of his life in this law school, seldom venturing far from campus, preferring instead to live like a nun cloistered inside a convent. Like many of his contemporaries, he had entered law school to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War and had stayed on to enjoy the benefits of lifetime tenure. He was short and portly and sported fluffy white hair and a trimmed white beard; he wore a brown